Labour masterclass in spotting the elusive Brethren

Mike Williams

The Labour Party conference this weekend will offer a workshop on "the Exclusive Brethren and the religious right in politics".

President Mike Williams said yesterday that "sunlight is the best disinfectant" and that he wanted Labour activists in electorates to know the work of the religious right in order to know when they were a victim of it.

Mr Williams said he had been given advice about the religious right two years ago when he met Howard Dean, the chairman of the United States Democratic Party and a former presidential hopeful.

"He said to me 'beware of the religious right'. Ten years ago we took no notice of them.

"Now they are growing claws."

Leading members of the Exclusive Brethren issued anonymous leaflets last year attacking Labour and the Greens and were reported to be behind push polling in parts of the country - electioneering disguised as telephone polling.

They approached the Electoral Commission seeking advice on how to support National with a $1.2 million campaign but without jeopardising National's spending limit.

Prime Minister Helen Clark has foreshadowed electoral reform legislation that would ban third-party attack advertising of that type.

Mr Williams told reporters at Parliament yesterday that what happened last election was "an international phenomenon".

"You cannot stop these people but sunlight is the best disinfectant and we want to shine a light into those activities so our people in those electorates know when they are victims in it.

"What is the motivation of these people who don't vote and want to tell you how to vote? What is the motivation of people who want us to have troops in Iraq but would not put themselves in harm's way?"

Mr Williams said the workshop would be run by Professor Paul Morris of Victoria University.

The guest speaker at the conference will be Queensland's Labor Premier, Peter Beattie, who has just been returned for a fourth term after what Mr Williams said was a "nightmare" of a term, having lost three MPs and three byelections.

Mr Williams dismissed the Colmar Brunton poll putting Labour 13 points behind National and believed the two big parties were running about even.

People voted on the big issues, such as economic prosperity and transport infrastructure.

"If this is as bad as it gets, it's not that bad," he said.

The conference logo is the same as that used for the party's 90th-birthday celebrations in July and features Helen Clark alongside Labour's first Prime Minister, Michael Joseph Savage.